Friday, September 19, 2014

An Even Easier QAYG

I'm always looking for a quick way to make a charity quilt. I think I've found the easiest after making an envelope quilt from a panel. This one is similar to the last one I posted, but is faster, has no sashing, and has a solid back.
Here's the one I made in 4 hours:

As this was the neonatal quilt I made as I taught the class, I only did a cross in the middle of the plain blocks and quilted around the motifs in the others. The batting allows up to 10' apart for quilting lines, so that simple quilting is enough for these 8 1/2" blocks. Measures 32"square.

What you need to make one:
Sixteen 8 1/" blocks (orphan, embroidered, cut from stash - whatever you have)
Sixteen 8 1/2"blocks of batting (thin flocked works better). I used warm and natural.

One 36" square of fabric for batting. If making bigger, backing must be 2 inches bigger all around the unfinished quilt top to bring the back to the front for binding.
Neutral thread,
Walking Foot

Now take one of each top block and batting and make a two layer sandwich. Do this for all the blocks. You will have 16 blocks.

Pin each block at the center of each edge; not the corners.
Quilt each of the blocks with the batting down, block on tip. I used a simple cross hatch for the simple blocks. See photo above.

Once all the blocks are done layout your blocks in the otder you want them in the flimsy. Mark them with masking tape in the upper left corner so you'll be able to keep them in order. I did A1, A2, A3, A4, etc. Sew the rows together horizontally. Iron the seam allowances the opposite of the one that follows - ie: A left, B right, C left, D right. Now sew them in pairs row A +row B, then Row C +rowD. Now sew the the two sections together and you top is done.

Lay out your backing and tape to your table so that it is taut, but not tight. Lay the quilt top on top and pins in place. Stitch in the ditch at the row seams horizontal and vertical or a square in the middle. Trim the back to one inch on all 4 sides. Iron in half and used this extra fabric as your binding that has been folded twice. Two vertical sides first ; then the two vertical sides. You're done! You can make this any size you want. Tell me how long it took to make yours.

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